My So-called Life on the Web. A panel proposal for the ASIS&T 2008 Annual Meeting to explore trends and emergent issues associated with a life increasingly mediated by and even lived on the Web.

Summary

The Web or, more generally, the Internet, is the conduit for an increasingly large proportion of the information we use in order to make sense of and effect change in the world around us. For many, the Web itself forms a large part of their world and living means being on the Web. In extreme cases, Web living is done to the neglect of school, job, friends and family in the  still present  physical world and to the neglect of other physical considerations such as exercise and good diet. We may know people like this. Are we becoming like these people too?

But the Web is more than this. The Web is also a powerful enabler of the activities we perform in our physical world. If were looking for a family-friendly hike to take in the early spring, we may go first to the Web to see which hikes are recommended (by fellow hikers), how to reach the trail head for a selected hike and how bad traffic is  right now  along different routes to the trailhead. The Web can give us ratings, contact information and directions for restaurants to go after the hike according to our dietary preferences, price-range and level of adventurousness. The Web helps us to keep in touch with our family. We turn to the Web to find and then buy that perfect gift for a friend on her birthday. The Web gives us the information we need to design a healthy plan of exercise and diet.

How can we, as members of the ASIST community, influence the directions of Web development and its impact on our lives?